Land reform: new law alarms SA's white farmers.

Mindful of the farmland chaos in neighbouring Zimbabwe, the South African government is to speed up expropriation of white-owned land under legislation recently signed by President Thabo Mbeki. The measure assigns to the Minister of Agriculture the authority to seize and redistribute land considered stolen from black citizens during the apartheid era, even if the white owner refuses to sell it.

The amendment to the 1994 Restitution Act, passed by South Africa's parliament last year, is aimed...